The Cheese Touch

So far, so good I suppose...no cheese for three days.  That is, if you don't count those two mini Butterfinger candy bars I took out of the candy baskets of my children.  Yes, I am a candy thief.  I did, however, read the ingredient list on my other favorite, the tootsie roll.  No dairy there, but I was a bit curious about the "artificial and natural flavors". 

Just what is the" natural" flavor in a tootsie roll?
Don't even get me started on the contents of ingredient lists and nutritional labels...

So back to this whole cheese thing.  Sunday was a bit rough.  My husband, the chef, who cannot seem to attend a single tailgate party for the Chargers without preparing three or four homemade, delicious dishes, made macaroni and cheese (with Boar's Head Monterrey jack no less) and sausage and peppers.  Now, homemade sausage and peppers is nice, but homemade macaroni and cheese is downright sinful.  Even with gluten-free pasta, the cheese is the most important part of the meal!  It wasn't too bad, really, until my son said, "Mommy, it's too cheesy!"  I just about stabbed a forkful of his macaroni right then and there, gluten and all!

Monday was good.  No real temptations, especially since my husband used up all of the cheese the day before.  The kids finished off the cream cheese on their little mini bagels for breakfast, so no threat of mistaking the cream cheese for the jelly when no one was looking.  Darn!

Today was okay, too.  I did notice less "issues" in the intestines today, which is nice because if they didn't subside I was ready to go RAW!  Though, after reading this I'm not so sure I have it in me to even go one week!  I do like the idea of a banana, spinach and water green smoothie.  Perhaps I'll have to try it someday and report back.

Tonight, I tried my hand at some serious pad thai.  It was a multi-step process that took a bit longer than I was expecting, but that's pretty typical of me.  I used something tonight that I've never used before: tamarind.  Its paste is made from the pod of a tree native to Africa, but much of it now comes from India.  It's kind of sweet and really fibrous and seedy so I had to reconstitute it.  That's culinary speak for adding water and letting it soften.  Then I had to push it through a "sieve" and I add it to my sauce.  It turned out pretty well.  I was kinda impressed with myself.  Sure, there are things I'd do differently but that comes with every new recipe I try.  I'm just glad there wasn't any cheese I had to substitute.  I don't know if I can go back to the rice cheese :P

For now, the dairy-free crusade continues.  I will try my best to make sure I stay off the dairy and I'll even try to stay off the butterfingers...

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